Blog Posts by Tara Ariano

Let's toast the Braverman ladies! (Chris Haston/NBC)As you may have noticed, the networks mostly don't bother to program their Friday nights, throwing up a mix of repeats of shows that aired on more competitive nights, and cheap newsmagazines. So if they're not going to give you interesting show options, you're going to have to do it yourself. We'll help you out by directing you to Your Time-Shift Friday Show of the Week — the kind that work well accompanied by a glass of wine and a stack of catalogs; or that can be enjoyed even if you doze off in the middle, because you can still pick up the plot thread in the end, or next week.

Show: "Parenthood," which airs on NBC Tuesday nights at 10 PM EST.

Plot: In and around San Francisco, the Braverman family — parents Camille and Zeek (Bonnie Bedelia and Craig T. Nelson) and their four grown children, all of whom are now parents themselves — get together at lots of dinners, occasionally clash, but mostly love and support each other.

How she looked last time. (Hulu)I've been to the future and brought back this sketch-by-sketch rundown of tomorrow's episode of "Saturday Night Live." Or is it just a series of very educated guesses? Read our "SNL" Sketch Predictor and judge for yourself.

11:29 PM Cold open: Rick Perry (Bill Hader) struggles with his performance in the latest Republican Presidential debate.

11:34 PM Monologue: Host Emma Stone sings about the very different lessons she learned from co-starring with Viola Davis in "The Help," and with Ryan Gosling in "Crazy Stupid Love."

For mustaches of distinction.Remember that episode of "Parks & Recreation" in which Ron (Nick Offerman) asked/demanded the help of Mark (Paul Schneider) to bring his perilous wood shop up to code? That was Offerman's real-life wood shop, where he makes furniture and other items for sale. Don't have $6137 to buy a solid mahogany dining table? No problem: Offerman also has a mustache comb for sale for the bargain price of $75. Perfect stocking stuffer, right? [HuffPost Comedy]

Other people are guest-starring on stuff too, whatever. (Michael Bezjian/WireImage.com; Robin Marchant/GettyImages/WireImage.com; Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)Actors have day jobs, but with an eye on a paycheck, a fun day's work, or an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy, they moonlight in TV guest roles, too. Here are a few performers (and one non-performer) who will soon provide their Guest Services.

Actor: Marla Gibbs
Day Job: Very occasional character actor
Guest-Starring On: "Southland"
Role: The relative of a suspect under investigation by Det. Adams (Regina King)
Pros: The role reunites Gibbs with King, who formerly played her daughter on "227."
Cons: UH DUH WHERE IS JACKÉE?!?

When Showtime's "Shameless" returns for its second season, viewers might hope that family patriarch Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) will have learned responsibility and show some respect to his children by taking better care of them, and himself. If that was your hope or expectation, don't watch this promo, which will disabuse you of that notion in about 60 seconds.

That's a nice specimen.With comic geniuses creating single-topic Tumblrs on what is probably a minute-by-minute basis, it can be difficult to know which ones are worth your time. We can't curate the entire platform for you, but we can bring to your attention the best television-themed sites in a feature we call TV Tumblr of the Week.

Site: The Cosby Sweater Project

TV Inspiration: The era-defining family comedy "The Cosby Show"

Site Production Values: Superb! Its beautiful screen shots from each episode are each clearly labeled with their source titles and season/episode info.

Making friends! (Hulu)It's not that "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is formulaic. It's that...uh...when a show's been on for this long, certain patterns start to emerge? Fine: It's formulaic. But that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. Here are the most basic facts you need to know about last night's episode.

Initial Crime: A young woman gets chased down by what are clearly Russian Mob enforcers; she is found murdered and horrendously disfigured.

Real Crime: When the woman is identified, from her tattoos, as a Russian bride-to-be named Lena, the cops track down her fiancé, Daniel Carter (Timothy Busfield). He'd been told that if he paid a ransom, she'd be returned to him. But when he later discovers a girl on a DIFFERENT Russian "dating site" who looks exactly like her and is wearing the necklace he gave Lena at their engagement party, the cops set up a sting and learn that Lena's supposed stalker ex, Liev, is blackmailing Lena into pulling this scam on gullible, lonely men, by keeping her daughter Anna from her.

Lovebirds? (Jason Merritt/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)It's so nice when the stars of reality shows and scripted shows can cross the gulf that divides them and find common ground, by which of course I mean that Lauren "The Hills" Conrad was at a party with Chace "Gossip Girl" Crawford, where the two allegedly made out. Leaving aside the issue of Conrad's relatively recent breakup with "Dancing with the Stars" pro dancer Derek Hough, the timing of this (alleged) event will be familiar to "Gossip Girl" fans: In this week's episode, Blair (Leighton Meester) summoned her remaining minions and put them through a series of challenges, with the victor promised a slot as a bridesmaid in Blair's upcoming royal wedding. The final challenge? Make out with Nate (Crawford) at a party. So maybe Conrad was just confused and thought that if she conquered Crawford, she could get a free trip to Monaco out of the deal. Of course, I'm kidding: Surely making out with Crawford is its own reward. [UsMagazine.com]